Last Minutes With ODEN : A Short Film

A crazy, emotional, true story. All shot with a Canon 7D.

Jules and Mike

My daughter Julia got engaged this summer to a really great guy, Mike Budd. Today we went out and took some pictures. They plan to get married next fall.

Dusseldorf, Germany

Sausage Chef at Carlsplatz

USAIR Flight#700

On our way to Dusseldorf, Germany. Bill and I are sitting in Envoy Class which, I have to say, beats the hell out of Coach. We were getting on the plane and I started to go right after I entered and Bill said, “Left. Left.” Whew. Coach sucks.

This isn’t even nearly as nice as the Business Class of either British Airways or Virgin Atlantic, which is what we usually fly when we travel to Europe. Both of those airlines offer flat bed seats. Actually, USAir is in the process of upgrading their international Airbuses to accommodate a updated Envoy class that includes flat-bed suites.

Germany

Both Bill and I have been to Germany two other times. Both to Dusseldorf for the same client. Now we have an opportunity to work with a completely different client in Germany and where are we headed? Dusseldorf.

Despite two trips there, I have never really seen anything of the town itself in the daylight. We’ve seen a little nightlife, in Old Town, and were even there for Carnival. But I couldn’t tell you much about the town other than I’ve been to a couple of pubs, a few restaurants, and some malls.

Malls Of The World

What does it say about the glamour of my travel life that I’ve been to malls in countries all over the world? Not much. Sad. Sad, I say. I’ve been to Dubai for instance, and other than the five malls I visited, the hotel I stayed in, and a handful of restaurants, I can’t tell you much about the city, let alone the country. I ate pizza like four times while I was there. The other restaurant I ate in was Italian!!

So, Back To Germany

Our flight took off from Philadelphia at 4:15pm. The flight takes about 8 hours to get to Frankfurt, then we have a three hour layover before our final 50 minute flight to Dusseldorf. We land in Dusseldorf around 9am.

We’ll get our bags and go straight to the hotel, then we’re meeting a German ad agency guy we’re partnering with on this project for lunch. After lunch, we don’t have any other plans. Possible dinner with an old client.

But the best thing is that Monday is a free day. That’s right. Nothing to do in Germany on Monday. I brought my camera, so Bill and I are going to wander the city and hopefully see some cool shit.

Tuesday, we have a presentation at 11am. We’ll get there by 10am and set up the room. Should be done by 1 or 2pm. Will probably have drinks at least with the client, maybe dinner.

Wednesday, we fly back home.

Flying

There are times when I don’t mind flying. Right now, for instance, I’m listening to music like, looking out the window, doing a little writing, etc… I haven’t even bothered with the OnDemand video system from the plane, or started watching any of the DVDs I brought with me. I am drinking, however, which certainly helps.

SUNDAY

Dusseldorf, Germany

We landed, went to the hotel, put our bags in our room and walked out the door. After trying, and failing, to negotiate the subway system, we caught a cab to Old Town.

Me Enjoying A Hefeweizen In Old Town, Dusseldorf

Altstadt "Old Town"

Altstadt, or Old Town in English, is the touristy part of town. Nearly all of it was destroyed by bombing attacks during World War II, but they painstakingly rebuilt most of it from original plans. It's a lot of pedestrian-only cobblestone streets filled with bars, restaurants and retail shops. It's known as the longest bar in Germany because there are over 300 bars and nightclubs there. During Carnival, it's sheer chaos, which is funny because normally you don't really see Germans cutting loose.

Andreas Melters

This is Andreas Melters. Andreas owns a German advertising agency in Dusseldorf. We had previously worked with him on another project and had reconnected with him to help us with our pitch.

He showed up on a Dutch bicycle looking like something out of an Italian movie. Very suave. His wife, Nicole, is blond and beautiful, as you would expect. We had dinner with them later that evening and they were both charming as could be.

Bill Rubino

This is Bill. He's the COO and a Partner at the advertising agency where I am also a Partner.

To say we travel a lot together is an understatement. It seems like we spend more time together than we do with our families.

That said, we do travel well together, which means we both drink a lot, share a common sense of humor and overall know how to travel with efficiency.

MONDAY

Monday morning, well barely morning (I slept ridiculously late), Bill was working on our presentation, plus another for a different client back in the states, so I went off on my own. Nicole, Andreas' wife, had told me to go to a famous outdoor market in town.


Carlsplatz
At the edge of Old Town is the Carlsplatz market. Actually, it probably just means market so calling it the Carlsplatz market would the equivalent of calling it the Market Market. It's an outdoor market where you can buy sausages, fish, produce, mustard and flowers. They also have quite a few hot food vendors and many of the locals eat lunch here, either standing up at high tops, sitting and enjoying a beer, or even just standing and eating. This is Germany's version of fast food.

Carlsplatz

Dusseldorf Butcher

Meat Counter

Necessities

So, there were a few things I was told I needed to find while on my Old Town excursion.  One was mustard and the other was a traditional Dusseldorf drink called Killepitsch.

Now every German I talked to disagreed with the statement I'm about to make, but trust me, to anyone else in the world, it tastes like Jägermeister. I'm sure they can tell there difference, but if I put a shot of rum, gin, vodka and then I gave you either Jager or Killepitsch, you'd say it was Jager either way. 

The bar where it was invented has been there since 1858, but the story goes that two Germans were in an air raid shelter during "the last war" and one vowed that if they didn't get killed (Kille) that he was going to make the greatest drink his friend had ever tried (pitsch).

That's what they told us anyhow.

Killepitsch

The Original Killepitsch Bar

TUESDAY

Our meeting was on Tuesday morning and morning came pretty early. Oh, what did we do the rest of the day on Monday? Well, we did what Bill and I always do when we're abroad. We find an Irish pub.

A Proper Pint

Irish Pubs

So here's the thing about Irish Pubs. I tell you because even an English bartender at one of the pubs asked me why, if I was in Germany, why I didn't find a German pub? And the answer is, we do. But we don't have as much fun.

Let me explain.

One of the great things about Irish Pubs is that you can go anywhere in the world, at least any major city in the world, and find an Irish Pub. Bill and I have yet to be skunked and we've traveled all over the globe and over most of North America.

The second is you can always find English speakers. I'm not talking about Americans. I don't want to travel thousands of miles and end up talking to some asshole from New Jersey. But it helps if you can communicate, and if you go to an Irish Pub, you are more likely than not, to find people who speak English.

The third thing is, Irish Pubs are almost always friendly. People go there because they want to drink and shoot the shit. I've met more cool people and had more great conversations in Irish Pubs all over the world.

The final, and maybe less important, is that they serve what Bill and I drink. Namely, Scotch for him and Hard Cider for me.

We had our meeting on Tuesday and we thought it went pretty well. We ended up in a different Irish pub that evening and it ended up being the best pub we'd been all three times we'd been to Germany.

Just so you don't think we are cultural chauvinists, we did spend some time in a German bar the night on Monday night. The music was American nightclub, the girls were cute, and there was a pole on the bar where patrons could pole-dance.

This is what we got.

I swear it wasn't a gay bar.

Makr Carry Goods

Brown Canvas and HF Strap | $160

White Walnut Skateboard Deck | $70

Leather Risers

Jersey Bros : New Cover

Fall 2010 | Bob On The Rocks

©2010 Hopping Frog Studios

©2010 Hopping Frog Studios

©2010 Hopping Frog Studios

©2010 Hopping Frog Studios

©2010 Hopping Frog Studios

Cape May Zoo | Baby Snow Leopards

The Cape May County Zoo recently announced the arrival of baby Snow Leopards and Sunday we went to see them. I didn't have high hopes because I figured they'd be behind glass, or asleep, or whatever. But there they were frolicking about. Two males and their mother.

©2010 Hopping Frog Studios

©2010 Hopping Frog Studios

©2010 Hopping Frog Studios

The Mad Russian vs. The Dept of Homeland Security

Me and my Beard in Prague.

A few years ago, I was in Prague as a keynote speaker for a conference on branding Experiential Destinations. One of our associate creative directors, Kyle, was with me and he bought his father an old Russian Navy hat. I think it was for an admiral or something. I would often forget I even had the beard, or at least how it made me look. I tried the hat on in the store and the guy working there was quite tickled.

When we got to a bar, I had Kyle put it on so I could take his picture. He insisted on taking a few of me. There's not that many pictures of me in the world to begin with, because I'm usually the one taking the pictures. But these I like.

When I returned to the States, I cleared customs in Philadelphia. Or at least that's where I tried to clear customs.

I had been getting harassed by the US Department of Homeland Security with more frequency than my lifestyle or occupation would seem to dictate. I would get asked if I had worked with any NGO's. Or if I'd been in the military. When they learned that I was in advertising, I was asked if I worked on the Harley Davidson account. I'm not shitting you.

So this tall, chrome dome Gestapo character comes over the Kyle and I as we're getting our bags off the belt. I had my cameras with me and they were packed in a big, bright, yellow Pelican case. It's not subtle.

He came over, demanded so see our passports with not so much as a smile or a hint of courtesy. Clearly he enjoyed his job even though he'd obviously been unable to make it into the military or the police force.

I realize that this last one is a little fey, but I included it anyway. More like the Gay Russian.

He began asking us questions and while I was answering one of them, he put his hand up and asked me to step back. I hadn't moved a muscle. I thought, "What the hell does he think I'm going to do here? He's armed and is wearing body armor. I'm wearing flip flops. Not to mention that I'd have to make it past a few dozen Homeland Security guys, a few dozen Philadelphia Police officers, and about a mile of airport terminal before reaching the outside.

I was tired and irritable. We hadn't flown business class, so I'd been stuck in coach, sitting up and NOT sleeping. Not to mention that it had been like 13 hours since I'd had a cigarette. I really wasn't in the mood for this.

It took Kyle about 20 minutes. Not me. My guy took his time. He went through every single thing I had with me. Unscrewing pens. Unzipping the liner of the suitcase. Questioning me about how much money I had on me then making me write it down. Then when he found a bunch of traveler's cheques I'd had in my bag since a trip to Costa Rica the year before, he wanted to know why I hadn't told him about them.

"Dude, I don't spend this kind of time going through my own bag," I told him. "That key you found a minute ago? I didn't even know I still had that."

I also had too many cigarettes.

You can get a lot of good deals at Duty Free. Actually, that's really not true. For the four bucks off your bottle of rum, I'd rather not have to hoof it through the airport. But smokes! They are a bargain.

I was buying two cartons and the guy there convinced me that if I bought one more, I could get two free. I really didn't want to carry that much but the guy was so insistent that I take advantage of this good deal. I thought, what the hell.

What I didn't realize is that they're happy to sell you five cartons of cigarettes for you to take wherever it is you're going. Even though you probably aren't even allowed to enter the other country with that many cigarettes. And they definitely don't want you entering with more than two cartons.

I had more than two cartons.

"I bought these here!" I told him. "Like three hundred yards from here. Why do they sell a five carton box if you're not even allowed to have them?"

But the piéce de résistance was when he found a small business envelope that contained four or five miscellaneous pills. Shit. Now this was just getting ridiculous.

Six months before this, I'd been set to go to Los Angeles for two weeks to direct a photoshoot and a television commercial. The day before I was to leave, my back when out. Badly. I couldn't stand up straight. I had to take a car service to the airport, request a wheelchair, and board the aircraft first. By the way, this is not a bad way to travel. Before I left one of my wife's friends gave me a muscle relaxant (or something), which I didn't take because while I know what vodka will do to me, I don't trust pills.

After a few chiropractor visits in LA and I was good as new, but before that happened, my set designer's wife gave me a few more pills, which I didn't take.

Now not one of these pills was identical and I couldn't have told you what any of them were. But there they were. In an envelope. In my bag.

After I explained all this, a supervisor had come over to find out why I had been there for two hours. He dismissed the envelope of drugs and threw them in the trash. He dismissed the cigarettes. He said, he's fine and walked away.

By now the DICK that had been searching through my stuff saying things like, "Now sir, I'm going to open this bag. If there's anything I need to know about, now is the time to tell me."

Really? If I had oh, say a kilo of heroin in my bag, or a Burmese python, is it really going to matter if I tell him, or he finds it on his own? Well, maybe with the python.

"Look. You've got me and everything I'm traveling with. I don't have over $10,000 so whether I have two nickels or $2,000 it doesn't matter. I'm not carrying drugs, illegal contraband or lizards. You have to do your job and look through everything, then go ahead.

After we'd packed all my shit back up, he told me to have a nice Father's Day. And that's how I spent my Father's Day that year.

Thanks Patriot Act!

Out Of Place | A Portrait Of Surfing In Cleveland, OH

Promotional Poster

For any of us who think we have it rough being Jersey Surfers, try getting any respect from the surfing community when you surf on a lake in Cleveland, OH. I've heard the argument that they get a break because no one even expects them to be surfing, kind of like the guys in Germany surfing the river downtown, but I still think you have to REALLY want it.

They surf Lake Erie, and the conditions have to get pretty extreme before they can even attempt to surf. Talk about not having a large surfing community.

©2008 Robby Staebler

This is a photo taken by Robby Staebler, a friend of the film. I think he's still shooting film with a medium format camera. Old school.

Village Whiskey | Philadelphia

Village Whiskey, Philadelphia, PA

Village Whiskey, Jose Garcas' newest creation in Philadelphia, is a combination of working class bar, comfort food and hard liquor, all wrapped up in a chic downtown experience.

Of course with a name like Village Whiskey you can expect to find a deep selection of whiskey along with bourbon, rye, and scotch. But it's the menu that really attracts me.

Starting with what they call bar snacks, I'm reminded of Dirty Franks back in the early days where you can still find a jar of pickled eggs behind the bar. The Tator Tots, Deviled Eggs, House-Made Cheese Puffs are all better than you thought and yet just what you hoped they would be. And we haven't even gotten to the Pickle Menu. Try the pickled Baby Carrots served with Black Olive Tapenade, Whipped Ricotta and Toasted Sourdough.

For your main course, you can go with the BBQ Pork Sammy, a pulled pork shoulder sandwich complete with fried pickle, but if you're going to eat at the Village Whiskey there's really only one option: The Whiskey King.

The Whiskey King is heart stopping burger made with 8oz of sustainable farm-raised Angus beef from Maine, Maple Bourbon Glazed Cipollini, Rogue Blue Cheese, Applewood Bacon and topped with a slab of Foie Gras. It's ridiculous. And that's why you have to try it. Just have the angioplasty standing by.

As long as you're in for a penny, you may as well go in for the pound and also order the Duck Fat Fries.

Just an example of something to get you going....

Fashion Shoot Behind The Scenes | NYC + Miami

Fashion Shoot NYC : Miami from David McCarty on Vimeo.

Back To School

Back To School from David McCarty on Vimeo.
This was filmed during a photoshoot in the Bronx for a Canadian client. Video portraiture and a little behind the scenes at a recent photoshoot. It was a back to school fashion thing, which we shot in a park in the Bronx, NYC. Since using a tripod would have required us to have permits, everything is handheld.

Photos : 2010 Nun's Beach Surf Invitational

©2010 Hopping Frog Studios | Mostly Old Guys

Here are some of the images I took at the Nun's Beach Surf Contest.

Igor Visits New Jersey

Avalon, NJ | ©2010 Hopping Frog Studios

Igor, the ninth tropical storm of the season, is coming to New Jersey. Actually, it's not coming anywhere close to shore, but it's just close enough to give us a nice swell. If you're not a surfer, then you're probably not even paying attention, but those of us still looking to get some nice rides before the weather turns and we have to squeeze into a rubber suit, we're pretty stoked.

After rather disappointing results from the last few storms (although to be honest I had a lot of fun with the last one), we're really looking forward to some good surf.

15th Annual Nun's Beach Surf Invitational

Nun's at Nun's Beach in Stone Harbor, NJ | ©2010 Hopping Frog Studios

We had our 15th Annual Nun's Beach Surf Invitational last weekend and it was a beautiful day. I took some video and some stills, judged a few heats and shot the shit with friends, but I mostly took it easy. I'm a little tired of working these events, truth be told.

In fact, I haven't even processed the pictures of video yet. The above photo is from a few years ago, when Sister Loyola was still with us. She was a peach. I can't for the life of me remember the other Sister's name. Maybe someone else remembers.

On another note, I had heard rumors that this was going to be the last year for the Nun's Beach surf event. While it is true that this was Bill Deger's last year running the event, others have told me that the event will continue. I'll have to take their word for it as I haven't heard who is taking over and these things just don't magically happen.